Data at Work : Dave Brat’s $1,000 Earthquake

[Editors Note: Thanks to Rob Cunningham for bringing Steve Adler and his work to the attention of Deciding The Vote. Steve’s work was instrumental in ushering in a new age in American political strategy. Deciding The Vote was instituted to bring to the engaged citizen, and to the aspiring political mind, fact and opinion relevant to a changing social order and to showcase the tools and technologies that are key aspects of this change.

Stay tuned to DTV alerts for an interview with Steve Adler in July. We expect to discuss his views on the rapidly advancing technology influences that are shaping current political events as well as delve into his thinking on the American social order.

Rob Cunningham is an emerging thought leader and media maven on the American political scene. Rob’s life experiences make his observations and opinions must read journalism for the freeman’s mind. Rob draws on his military, entrepreneurial, advocacy, and perhaps most importantly, experiences as a father, to shape critical commentary on the road ahead.]

Dave Brat’s $1,000 Earthquakeby Rob Cunningham

Truth is one of the most powerful forces on earth. And perhaps the force most feared by compromised politicians.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s crushing defeat came at the hands of a virtual unknown college professor, one who overcame a 26 to 1 funding disadvantage in which 377 Political Action Committees (PACs) contributed to Cantor’s 2014 campaign vs. 0 (zero) PAC contributions into Brat’s 2014 campaign. It’s been borderline hilarious watching so many media talking heads, politicians and campaign consultants grasp at explanatory straws. It reminds me of Mark Twain’s quote, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”

The raw truth? Both major political parties, Obama’s Organizing for Action, national Tea Party groups, K street campaign consultants, fundraisers and major media networks that thrive on selling expensive campaign advertising, all have major conflicts of interests concerning the essential truth of Dave Brat’s winning formula. Their conflicts of interest can best be understood by asking a few questions:

“What if Dave Brat’s landmark Virginia victory was not a “fluke”, and citizen-candidates across our nation learned they could easily acquire the “Brat secret”? What if local, state and national candidates believed they could similarly overcome a 26x financial disadvantage, shrink typical fundraising requirements by up to 90% and be competitive with virtually any incumbent politician without ever making one expensive media buy?”

What does Dave Brat’s victory prove? Status quo, GOP and RNC political advisors are largely irrelevant, ineffective and grossly overpaid.

Steve Adler, founder of rVotes, need never worry about being accepted by the Washington Beltway’s “cool people.” Immediately following Dave Brat’s historic primary victory, Mr. Adler should have faced a crushing demand for wall-to-wall media coverage, catapulting him into the national spotlight. But instead of being heralded like the head coach of the USA’s Olympic Hockey Team that famously upset the Russians in 1980, Mr. Adler remains largely unknown. I’ve yet to hear a major news media organization credit Steve Adler for his central role in Eric Cantor’s stunning defeat. If “real journalists” engaged in actual journalism, thousands of patriotic citizens interested in running for elected office would understand they can defeat corrupt, out of touch politicians, just as Dave Brat dethroned Eric Cantor. Dave Brat’s “secret” decision to engage rVotes resulted in all volunteers on his team becoming instantly IT empowered, in a manner establishment Democrats have embraced for twelve or more years. Yet today, the Republican Party still refuses to embrace an open access database policy for anyone but their endorsed candidates. Only an elite, GOP approved, controlling minority are permitted access to their proprietary canvassing software platform. Team Brat, on the other hand, working collaboratively and in real time, inflated GOP primary voter turnout in their district by 38% from 2012 and 2014. Adler’s rVotes helped the volunteers on Brat’s team target individual voters as expertly as Cris Kyle took aim at enemy jihadists.

Dave Brat beat the GOP machine with Barack Obama’s campaign software. And the GOP still doesn’t get it.

Why rVotes Should Terrify the Entire DC Establishment

Adler’s rVotes, like the Democrat party’s favored VoteBuilder, is more than just some cool set of campaign and election tools. rVotes is virtually identical to the Obama campaign technology platform. Steve Adler should know, he wrote the original source code. After accepting a buyout from his business partners in 2005, a pay package that included his Voter Action Network (now called “VoteBuilder”) source code and a five-year non-compete agreement, Adler stayed on the sidelines until launching rVotes in 2010. Prior to rVotes, the two major election campaign platform systems were the Democrat’s sophisticated Voter Action Network and the Republican’s propriety, grossly inferior, tightly controlled Voter Vault platform.

The rVotes platform is designed for open access, individual use by an infinite number of users and grassroots groups. Adler’s rVotes offers a voter intelligence infrastructure that unifies, synchronizes and weaponizes data, for the benefit political candidates and organizations on the right (conservative) side of the political fence. And there are no GOP gatekeepers or good old boys determining who can and can’t access the system. Our founding fathers that penned the phrase, “We the People”, could have never imaged this degree of power.

Although no single, “silver bullet” can explain a candidate’s victory, there is no doubt Brat’s rVotes decision made his historical Virginia election possible. By making a $1,000 investment, the Brat campaign was empowered to crush the GOP “machine.” And combined with his skillful recruiting of disciplined volunteers, Team Brat out-worked and out-smarted an out-of-touch, over-consulted, highly financed insider. It took but a total of $150,000 – and zero name recognition – to topple the second highest-ranking republican in America sitting on a $5,000,000 war chest.

The Washington beltway, ruling elites in media and politics have zero interest in every day Americans learning about the disruptive political technology that just rocked their industry.

It’s a Brave New World. Thank you, Steve Adler. On behalf of all Americans, I salute you.

James is an IT consultant and solutions architect with decades of experience working on various major projects with Fortune 500 companies. He is also an author and editor for DecidingTheVote.com, a blog forum for politically active citizens and professionals.

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